Empyrean
by Idrelle Miocovani
Summary: "All men were born and all men died, but heroes were remembered for eternity."


**A/N:** I'm currently experimenting with a style of writing called a "50 Sentences" challenge – you are given a table of fifty prompts and have to write _one_ sentence to go with each prompt. Naturally, sometimes the grammar gets a bit flimsy, but it's a fun exercise. For 2011, I am writing a series of 50 Sentences challenges (four per month – or, if I miss a month, it will be covered elsewhere) covering many different fandoms and characters. Since I couldn't find a decent category to put the series in (this really isn't a crossover, so the crossover options are out), I am posting each entry separately in its own fandom. This is the ninth ficlet in the series, and if you'd like to keep track of them, there's an index in my profile listing the titles and fandoms of them all.

Thanks for reading!

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><p><strong>Empyrean<strong>

**1. Arise**

All men were born and all men died, but heroes were remembered for eternity.

**2. Cradle**

Helen pressed the shimmering pearls between her fingers, luxuriating in their soft, cool touch – they were a precious gift she could not bear while she was Queen of Sparta.

**3. Twine**

Thetis did not weep when her son departed; despite her own wishes and desire, it was impossible to avoid the twisted hand of fate.

**4. Ardour**

Agamemnon was not a good king, but his people loved him – with a charismatic smile and the looming threat of simple annihilation, he could bend the world to his whims.

**5. Cascade**

The rain of Trojan arrows flew down the great banks of the beach, felling lesser men whose time had come.

**6. Turbulence**

When the Greeks came, Briseis reacted on instinct, abandoning her training – she left Apollo's altar to be desecrated by madmen and hid in a dark place, praying the Sun God would not take vengeance on her for her dereliction of duty.

**7. Blossom**

The flowering trees gently welcomed Helen as she walked in the palace garden, the only place where one could pretend there was no war.

**8. Leaf**

As the war raged on, Odysseys began to wonder ow many times the leaves would change colour before he saw his home again.

**9. Stem**

When Priam reflected on what had past, he thought history would remember Helen and Paris as the ill-fated lovers who began the war – but their actions were merely a romantic façade shielding the needs and desires of petty kings.

**10. Branch**

Once when he was young, Paris fell from a tree and broke a leg, and once it had healed, he climbed back up and fell again – Hector doubted it was in his nature to learn from his mistakes.

**11. Nature**

Briseis looked at the sleeping face of her abductor, knowing that though he had saved her from the hands of a few slimy, malicious Greeks, killing was embedded in his character and that would not change.

**12. Fever**

Patroclus stormed across the beach, kicking up sand – was he undeserving of the same glory and immortality his famous cousin sought?

**13. Soil**

The land before the great gates of Troy were soaked with the blood of thousands of men, and still the war raged on.

**14. Chrysalis**

As he received the girl's fiery glare, part of him wondered whether he could truly be anything other than a slayer of men.

**15. Gust**

A wind blew across the silenced battlefield, carrying sand and the stench of dead bodies.

**16. Breeze**

Odysseys felt the burning heat on his face as he ran through the destroyed streets of Troy, knowing the deaths of thousands of innocents were on his hands.

**17. Breakaway**

These days she went through the motions of prayer, but her heart was not in it – if Apollo truly cared or listened, why had he not answered her pleas?

**18. Elysian**

Troy burned around him as he succumbed to his wounds, but he was at peace – he would soon join the men he had killed in the afterlife.

**19. Feather**

Her kiss was light, filled with uncertainty and awkwardness, as if she did not know what to do.

**20. Warble**

The birds still sang the next morning, oblivious to the fiery destruction that had swept through the city the night before.

**21. Thaw**

She had detested him, hating what he was, what he represented, but she had slowly come to the realisation that he was simply a man trying to leave his mark on the world.

**22. Zest**

The celebrations had been spirited when the princes returned from Sparta, but Priam could already feel the thunderous disaster following them across the sea.

**23. Capricious**

Briseis had not expected to be released; but when he refused to look at her, she knew something within him – however small – had changed.

**24. Seed**

As Aeneus took the sword from the Trojan prince, he felt the great weight of responsibility take its place on his shoulders.

**25. Sprout**

The first arrow speared his heel unexpectedly, and as the pain spiralled up his leg, he knew the end had finally come for him.

**26. Shift**

Paris looked out from the battlements, knowing the Greeks could not have abandoned the war so easily.

**27. Fragrance**

Even after weeks of captivity, the girl still smelled like a royal – and it was not an entirely unpleasant scent.

**28. Balm**

Helen carefully tended to his wounds, knowing that while she could stitch him back together, there was nothing she could do to heal is overwhelming guilt and damaged pride.

**29. Frenzy**

He stood before the walls of Troy, calling the name of his cousin's slayer – no words could dissuade him, and no force on earth could protect Hector from his vengeful wrath.

**30. Abound**

When the sun rose each morning, the Greek camp appeared like a dark shadow on the horizon.

**31. Verdant**

Patroclus could have been a great warrior – there were many who envied his position – if not for his cousin.

**32. Unfurl**

Agamemnon threw the wine-filled cup across his tent, his seething anger barely controllable – if the Trojan slut came between him and his victory, he would reclaim the girl and slit her throat himself.

**33. Fervour**

The arrows slammed into the practice target again and again as Paris drew and took aim, his silent anger guiding him to perfection.

**34. Hatch**

Caught between the bloodthirstiness of various Greek leaders, Odysseus knew he was the only one with the brains to save the Greek soldiers from mass-slaughter against Troy's walls.

**35. Delicate**

Briseis was not as breakable as her royal appearance implied – her disdain for me, for _Greek_ men, gave her spirit.

**36. Dew**

Though the smoke stung her eyes, though her very being felt broken and torn, Briseis could not allow herself to cry even as Paris led her away from the burning city.

**37. Puddle**

As she did everything in her power to aggravate him, it was far too tempting to tip over the basin of fresh water and dump it on the floor.

**38. Rain**

The second night after Hector's death, the heavens poured forth their tears to the earth.

**39. Storm**

Priam did not need a seer to tell him what he knew in his gut – Troy was at a crossroads of fate and he would likely not live to see her destiny.

**40. Thunder**

"Do you hear the gods' displeasure?" she said one night, pulling at her bonds in the dark as thunder rolled through the air.

**41. Lightning**

"If the gods are displeased, there is little weather can do to change Agamemnon's mind," he said as a brief flash of light illuminated his face.

**42. Deluge**

Self-hatred and loathing swelled within her and threatened to flood the growing spark in her heart when she realised she did not truly object Achilles' presence.

**43. Vernal**

She was young, she was youthful – Briseis would have made a fine priestess had the Greeks left her and her people alone.

**44. Equinox**

She had not known that she would come to love her enemy – if it could be called "love" – but she found that despite her captivity, she felt more alive now than she ever had before.

**45. Roulade**

Troy wailed to the night as the fires ravaged her people.

**46. Whisk**

Paris had always been quick to find the easy solution to his problems, but even he could not be naïve enough to believe the Greeks would leave Troy alone if he and Helen disappeared.

**47. Idyllic**

He had wondered whether he would ever live a normal life, but even as he held Briseis in his arms he knew such a charming vision was nothing more than a dream.

**48. Rebirth**

Their city was ransacked, their people slaughtered, but those who escaped Troy that night would find a way to survive.

**49. Cycle**

She wanted to kill him the night he returned with Hector's body dragged behind his chariot, but she could not bring herself to even touch the knife.

**50. Anew**

The legends would spread, told and re-told throughout the centuries – and perhaps then they had all achieved immortality.

_fin_


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